CBS Sunday Morning had an interview on Nora Roberts. It showed her home where she works as well as the Inn she restored. I am not sure if I heard correctly but I think it said she makes $60 million per year.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7422708n

Danielle Steel, who holds the record for the most consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for an author, including novelists, is $55,420 a year as of May, 2011. More than 10,000 aspiring and professional writers belong to the Romance Writers of America, but less than 20 percent of them have published a book.

An interesting interview. As I watched, I kept wondering who she reminded me of -- her voice, especially, was not what I expected, much more gravelly. I finally figured out that she has a "smoker's voice" like my grandmother had. I don't know if Nora actually smokes (or smoked) but many of her early characters did._________________JulieR

An interesting interview. As I watched, I kept wondering who she reminded me of -- her voice, especially, was not what I expected, much more gravelly. I finally figured out that she has a "smoker's voice" like my grandmother had. I don't know if Nora actually smokes (or smoked) but many of her early characters did.

She used to smoke. I don't think she smokes anymore, though. Not sure.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for an author, including novelists, is $55,420 a year as of May, 2011. More than 10,000 aspiring and professional writers belong to the Romance Writers of America, but less than 20 percent of them have published a book.

The $55420 sounds all right until one considers whether the average includes the authors making big $.

It does include movie writers but not novelists' movie rights. It doesn't even break down the list by novelists alone, never mind romance novelists, so I guess the article I quoted used the "50% median annual wage" number for his average income. The $55,000+ figure is for just 40,930 people.

It's all broken down so many different ways--highest levels of employment, highest concentration of employment, top paying industries for this occupation, and even geographically. Probably far more than you ever wanted to know.